Serbian ombudsman criticises overcrowded prisons

In a 2009 report, Amnesty International said that despite some improvements, “significant cases of ill-treatment remained”.

BELGRADE, February 10, 2010 (AFP) - Serbian jails are overcrowded and prisoners' rights have been neglected, the Serbian ombudsman's office said Wednesday.

Serbia's prison population has almost doubled in five years to about 11,000 people, Beta news agency quoted Milos Jankovic, deputy ombudsman as saying.

"Prisons and detention centers in Serbia are overcrowded ... We need fifty percent more accommodation facilities," Jankovic said, adding that the state does not invest enough.

He described conditions in psychiatric asylums and other closed facilities as "humiliating."

Jankovic said monitoring teams have found that in certain penal institutions prisoners "sleep on the floor, while sometimes up to 15 people live in a room with no direct air-flow."

"(Prisoner's) rights have been neglected and there is not enough attention paid to them," Jankovic said.

At the Zabela prison, near the eastern town Pozarevac, only one doctor treats 1,300 prisoners, according to a survey of 19 facilities conducted by the ombudsman's office.

The survey noted the poor quality of food and that internal security controls were not tight enough.

Since 2000, when reformers ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic from power, Serbian authorities have tried to improve the prison system after years of mismanagement and lack of financial support.

In 2004, the government adopted a Penal Reform Strategy aiming to meet European Union standards, with teh support of the Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

However, human rights watchdogs have said that conditions have not improved fast enough.

In a 2009 report, Amnesty International said that despite some improvements, "significant cases of ill-treatment remained".